Democratizing Access to Surgery

Curated Surgical Training

By Dr. Nick van Terheyden aka Dr. Nick
Twitter: @drnic1
Host of Dr. Nick: The Incrementalist#TheIncrementalist

On this episode I talked to Richard Vincent, CEO and Co-Founder of FundamentalVR, a company focused on democratizing access to surgery through virtual training. Richard came from a technology background building applications and solutions for the emerging mobile marketplace. To their eye, the next wave included the application of Virtual Reality and the potential to immerse in a realistic experience for training in the healthcare and surgical field.

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Their solution builds on the youtube movement that has demonstrated a clear demand for access to education on procedures (Doctors are turning to YouTube to learn how to do surgical procedures, but there’s no quality control) but remains variable in quality and usefulness.

We discuss the key innovations for their perspective that included the importance of Haptics and forced feedback (you can see an example of this as Richard discusses for the Pedicle Screw Insertion here) to provide a realistic experience that replicates the experience in a real operating room. Listen in to hear how they have added confidence and competence to the world of Surgical training that includes accreditation and is connecting up the “training islands” of surgical skills.

About the Show
For years Dr. Nick van Terheyden aka Dr. Nick, has served as a voice on the impact of new technologies on healthcare, earning a reputation as a leading authority on where the future of medicine is going. Combining powers of observation and real world experience, Dr. Nick has seen many predictions come true and makes the case that innovations in healthcare can be accomplished incrementally, not just by moonshot events. Tune in to hear Dr. Nick: The Incrementalist and his guests discuss what the future of healthcare looks like, how we will get there, and what it will take to improve healthcare for all.

This article was originally published on the Dr. Nick – The Incrementalist blog and is republished here with permission.